U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,232, issued on Feb. 16, 1993 (which is fully incorporated herein by reference), discloses and claims an accessory product for easily mounting and detaching a material from a rod without removing the rod. The accessory product is intended for use with hanging or otherwise suspended materials, such as window treatments (window curtains, drapes, etc.), shower curtains, windscreens, towels, and so forth. Such suspended materials (referred to herein as “hanging materials” for brevity) are well known in the art, and are often mounted onto rods.
In one system of the prior art, separate devices, such as hooks or clips, are utilized to connect portions of the curtain to the rod. In an alternative system of the prior art, the curtain or drape is mounted by threading a rod through the reinforced holes in that curtain.
As an advance over the prior art products, the '232 patent discloses an accessory invention, as shown in FIG. 5, which allows a curtain or so forth to be attached to a mounting rod without the need for hanging support hooks, clips, and so forth, while also avoiding the need to remove the rod from its supports. The accessory is useful in a large variety of applications, including shower curtains and other household and commercial products. It involves a series of reinforced openings with slits provided between alternating paired sets of holes, thereby allowing the hanging material to be attached over the rod without the need for threading or hooks. Further advances and improvements to the inventions disclosed in the '232 patent are provided herein.